Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/27

Rh the peninsula, founded the colony of Rusaddir, which afterwards became a possession of the Carthaginians, only to pass in time to the Berbers. With the turning of Fortune's wheel, Spain wrested Melilla and its riches from the Berbers, paying for this deed with the regular tribute of her blood. Through all ages it has been the deposits of iron, zinc and lead ores that have lured outsiders to the peninsula. It is said that the Phoenicians, after the founding of Rusaddir, made from this base bold expeditions farther to the west and reached the southern shore of Spain, where they found deposits of quicksilver and sulphur, which they carried back with them to the East, the first for the priests and magi, the second for sale to pirates, who prepared from it flaming arrows to set fire to the enemy's ships.

Before going back on board, we visited the large Hernandez Park, filled with beautiful palms of many varieties and some fine specimens of Araucaria. But the burning heat drove us to seek shelter in a café behind ices and iced drinks until it was time to return to the Balear.

We were hardly under way when we heard a great uproar in the steerage. It turned out that one of the passengers, who had been spending the hours on shore, had forgotten her little son and daughter and had just waked to the fact that they were not on board. The rattle-headed mother was finally consoled by the